And then—everything changed.
No warning. No tremor. No alarm.
Just pressure.
Like gravity had suddenly pulled harder.
My ears popped. The air crackled with electromagnetic tension.
The floor beneath me—one of the most stabilized labs in the world—shuddered like a leaf in a storm.
Every cell in my body screamed danger. Objects rattled. A light fixture burst with a sharp pop.
One automated arm collapsed with a screech of stressed titanium.
"KIRA, seismic data, now!" I shouted, gripping the steel counter's edge.
KIRA's voice tightened. "No seismic event detected. The phenomenon is spatial."
Then I saw it.
Screens around my lab flickered to life, not by my command—but by a government override breaking through AI protocols.
Red banners flashed:
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ████ GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY BROADCAST
┃┃ █ CODE: ASTRA-1 BLACK █ ┃┃
┃┃ >>> MULTI-POINT SPACE RUPTURE DETECTED <<
┃┃ [ PROXIMITY ALERT ] ┃
┃ LOCATION: OSAKA MEGAFRACTURE ZONE ┃
┃ DISTANCE: 14.7 KM FROM YOUR LOCATION ┃┃
┃┃ !!! ALL CIVILIANS !!! ┃
┃ EVACUATE OR TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
Before I could absorb it, KIRA whispered:
"…Sam, distortions in the mesosphere and ionosphere are global. The planet's outer membrane is tearing."
My blood ran cold.
"What force can tear atmospheric layers at once?" I whispered.
KIRA pulsed. "Theoretical physics suggests quantum rupture events—simultaneous intercontinental spacetime rifts. No human precedent."
Another broadcast hijacked the screens—media outlets this time:
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ ██████ BREAKING NEWS ██████ ┃┃
┃┃ GLOBAL SPACE CRACKS IDENTIFIED — ┃
┃ JAPAN | US | BRAZIL | SIBERIA | MONGOLIA ┃┃
┃┃ >>> OSAKA CENTER: RIFT VISIBLE FROM SPACE <<< ┃
┃ POSSIBLE DIMENSIONAL BREACH ┃┃
┃┃ FOOTAGE INCOMING: ┃
┃ NON-HUMAN ENTITIES EMERGING ┃
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
The screen changed.
Grainy footage showed a jagged, black rift splitting Osaka like a stitched scar across the Earth. Then—they came.
Monsters.
Winged, snarling, moving wrong—limbs bending like they broke physics. They poured out like ants from a nest.
"KIRA. Call Dad. Now."
"Attempting... No connection."
"Try again. Repeat every 3 seconds."
My hands moved without thought—grabbing the emergency containment case, sliding all twelve serums into foam compartments. I scooped vital chemicals, vials, nano kits, injector pens. Sealed the chamber with a seven-stage biometric lock:
Palm print.
Retina scan.
Vocal command.
Oral DNA sample.
Retinal re-authentication.
Voice line password:
"From blood, we bloom—Twelve Genesis."
Second oral DNA confirmation.
Everything clicked closed with a hiss.
I raced out, past the AIs who bowed silently in glowing white fonts on glass panels.
Welcome Back, Dr. Coer.
We trust your brilliance will guide us forward.
At the car, my mind still couldn't process it. Creatures breaching dimensions. Government alarms screaming DEFCON.
And Dad—silent.
Manual call override.
"Call Sera."
Static.
Then—
"Hello—Sam—sdfkjslf—hel—run—"
"Sera! Where are you?! Hurt?! Dad?!"
"Run—Dad jhjht—ljlkhh—befvfhgvore—" fsssskkhhh.
Silence.
My hands clenched the wheel as the city blurred past the windshield. Roads jammed. People panicked.
I weaved through cars with surgical precision. KIRA commanded traffic sensors, drones, autopilots like a symphony of light and code.
Thirty minutes later, I reached home.
Slammed the door and sprinted to the porch.
"Sera?! Rio?! Mom?!"
All there. Rio with a kitchen knife. Sera holding a flashlight and backpack. Mom barely holding back tears.
Dad wasn't.
My breath hitched.
"Sam?" Mom stepped forward. "Where's your father?"
My stomach dropped.
"What? Didn't he stay with you?"
She shook her head, voice trembling.
"As soon as he heard about the rift... he left. Said you might not be safe. Went to find you."
Silence swallowed the room.
A knot twisted in my chest.
"I was already on my way…"
"Sam," Sera stepped closer. "He never came back."
I slammed my fist against the wall.
That damned connection—I could've told him. Stopped him.
I turned to them.
"There's a basement, right? Under the house?"
Mom nodded.
"Get in. Lock the door. Bring food. Water. Tools. Don't open for anyone. I know the override code. I'll come back."
Mom's eyes glistened.
"Please come back safe, Sam."
I placed my hand on her shoulder.
"I will."
I turned to the rising smoke on the horizon.
But the real problem was my lab—7 kilometers deeper toward Osaka's city crack.
Dad had left in that direction over 40 minutes ago.
Normal traffic would take 20 minutes. Now—monster chaos, jammed roads—it could be much longer. He might already be lost.
I tapped my wrist.
[KIRA: Online.]
"KIRA, initiate full thermal scan of Osaka. Find Dad. Face ID, movement pathing, drone feeds—anything."
╔═════════════╗
║ [ WARNING ] ║
╚═════════════╝
╔══════════════════════════════════╗
║ [ SECURITY ALERT ] ║
║ Unauthorized request detected. ║
║ Accessing military satellite feeds║
║ is classified under Japan Intersecurity Act Article 9.║
║ Attempting to bypass will trigger:║
║ • Legal repercussions ║
║ • Immediate system lockdown ║
╚══════════════════════════════════╝
"I don't care. Override it."
[Sam, your Cyber-Tech License is flagged. Override will mark you a Class-B violator.]
"I said override it. Dad's in there."
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ [ FINAL CONFIRMATION ] ║
║ Attempt illegal access to ║
║ Government Surveillance System║
║ JGS-12-Ω? ║║ [ YES ] [ NO ] ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
"Yes. Give me root shell access."
╔════════════════════════╗
║ [ EMERGENCY ROOT CONSOLE ]║
║ Launching emergency root console…║
║ Transferring full permissions… ║
║ Good luck. ║
╚════════════════════════╝
My fingers flew over the holographic terminal. Red warnings flashed.
Protocols fought back—RSA-512 walls, scrambling code. But I was faster.
I didn't build firewalls to obey them. I built them to break.
I wrote a neural injection script on the fly, forged a relay path through an abandoned weather node, spoofed a military drone signature.
1-minus 57 seconds later—
╔═════════════╗
║ ACCESS GRANTED ║
╚═════════════╝
A high-def satellite feed zoomed on streets near my lab.
There—blinking between wrecked cars and monsters—Darian Coer.
My father. Alive.
Carrying a child. Heading back toward the house with iron rod in hand.
[KIRA]: Target locked. Thermal scan established. Route calculated.
I didn't breathe. My chest tightened.
"I'm coming, Dad."
I slammed the pedal. My high-tech car surged forward like a bullet.
AI-guided suspension adapted in real time to rubble-strewn roads.
I weaved through abandoned vehicles and shattered glass, past fleeing civilians.
Some screamed. Others were too wounded to move. Some—God bless them—were fighting back.
Smoke and despair thickened the air.
After 2 kilometers, I cut the engine.
I could feel it—his presence.
And then… I saw him.